SD-WAN: SOFTWARE-DEFINED WAN

The Future of WAN is Here Today

SD-WAN solutions are transforming enterprise networks

Software-defined WAN is quickly replacing traditional Wide Area Networks (WANs) as more enterprises realize the need to rethink networking for today’s cloud-centric world. SD-WAN simplifies the way networks are designed, deployed and managed. It also brings powerful capabilities that increase the efficiency and agility of IT teams.

The transition to software-defined WAN is easier than you might expect because many SD-WAN devices can be installed without removing the existing network equipment. Also, the learning curve is shorter than for traditional WAN administration tools because SD-WAN is managed from a central console using a modern, graphical user interface.

Riverbed offers these SD-WAN advantages and more with our Cloud Networking portfolio.

SD-WAN solutions are transforming enterprise networks

Software-defined WAN is quickly replacing traditional Wide Area Networks (WANs) as more enterprises realize the need to rethink networking for today’s cloud-centric world. SD-WAN simplifies the way networks are designed, deployed and managed. It also brings powerful capabilities that increase the efficiency and agility of IT teams.

The transition to software-defined WAN is easier than you might expect because many SD-WAN devices can be installed without removing the existing network equipment. Also, the learning curve is shorter than for traditional WAN administration tools because SD-WAN is managed from a central console using a modern, graphical user interface.

Riverbed offers these SD-WAN advantages and more with our Cloud Networking portfolio.

Learn More About SD-WAN

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Reducing MPLS costs with SD-WAN

Considerable savings can be realized by moving some or all traffic from MPLS to cost-effective broadband alternatives in a hybrid WAN configuration. SD-WAN makes it easy to achieve cost savings by automatically splitting traffic between low-cost and highly-available WAN links based on business criticality. This is possible when the SD-WAN solution can identify traffic by application and steer it according to policy-based rules. While there is no doubt that cost savings is a key benefit of SD-WAN adoption, it’s not always easy to understand how much can you save and what is your true return on investment (ROI). Learn where the savings come from and what’s the ROI for SD-WAN.

SD-WAN simplifies branch office networks

Software-defined WAN is making it simpler to set up and manage networks at branch offices despite their growing complexity and a lack of onsite IT staff. With zero-touch, rapid deployment, almost anyone can plug in an SD-WAN gateway and watch as it is discovered, provisioned, and brought online. One network engineer can administer dozens, maybe hundreds, of SD-WAN devices on an ongoing basis. This is made possible by policy-driven management, which translates business requirements into operational rules that are transmitted to all SD-WAN devices across the enterprise network.

Find out how GHD brought 50 small offices into its corporate network in just 4 weeks with Riverbed SteelConnect SD-WAN, resulting in cost savings and greater business agility.

Improving performance with SD-WAN

Network performance is important for business-critical applications and unified communications–especially when applications run in the cloud. But not all network traffic needs to move quickly. Software-defined WAN combines traditional quality-of-service with the ability to steer the traffic of different applications and users onto appropriate paths. SD-WAN can also monitor the health of WAN links and automatically route traffic onto an alternate path when the primary path becomes congested. But that doesn’t help if all available paths are bad. WAN optimization can be used together with SD-WAN to improve performance across congested links and high-latency connections.

Security and SD-WAN

Software-defined WAN enhances security in several ways. SD-WAN can identify network traffic by source/destination, application, and users. Then it routes the traffic according to centrally-defined security policies that control access to zones and the Internet. SD-WAN gateways form connections between sites using VPN tunnels with advanced encryption. Many gateways come with a robust perimeter firewall that meets most security needs. Internet traffic that requires a firewall with advanced features can be backhauled through a central access point with stronger security or sent through cloud security provider.

SteelConnect SD-WAN lets OpenEye quickly expand its network while connecting team members to its cloud-based pharmaceutical design platform in minutes, compared to months required previously. SteelConnect also provides the scalability needed to expand SaaS offerings.

OpenEye Scientific is a privately held company headquartered in Santa Fe, NM, with offices in Boston, Cologne, and Tokyo. It was founded in 1997 to develop large-scale molecular modeling applications and toolkits that are primarily used for pharmaceutical discovery and design, reducing time to market for new pharmaceuticals.

SteelConnect enables us to be far more agile, which is really good for our growing business.Craig Bruce , Scientific Software Developer, OpenEye

GHD needed a simple, cost-effective solution to enable the rapid deployment of 50 new sites.

When global professional services company GHD merged with North American engineering consultancy Conestoga-Rovers and Associates (CRA), it added more than 3,000 employees in 100 offices, including 50 small sites. They needed a simple, cost-effective solution to enable the rapid deployment of those new sites onto the company’s network. Riverbed SteelConnect has helped GHD achieve this, fueling stronger collaboration amongst its project teams spread across the globe, business agility and cost savings of an anticipated USD 1 million a year.

GHD deployed Riverbed’s SD-WAN solution SteelConnect across 50 new offices in just four weeks, and we anticipate saving $1 million annually.Elizabeth Harper, CIO, GHD

SimplePay Group Selects Riverbed as its Software-defined Networking Partner to Scale its Business Globally

SimplePay opened its doors in Sydney in 2012, quickly establishing itself as a leading payment processing company in Australia. The company’s core value proposition is its market-leading ability to securely process large volumes of transactions across markets and currencies on a single platform. SimplePay solutions address data integrity, privacy and security policies and cover more payment methods than any other provider.

The systems were working fine for us locally in Australia, but I recognized early on that they couldn’t be easily scaled across the globe or easily managed from a reliability and sustainability perspective. We didn’t want to have to drop IT staff in to every new location.Rob Gillan, Chief Technology Officer, SimplePay